"Passing by these works of God and man, ever present before our eyes, I am going to call your attention to things less material--to things which do not cling to our remembrance as they ought. Secure in our material prosperity, we New-Yorkers do not always recall those incidents in the history of the city which deserve to be forever memorable. We are not often accused of modesty--but we are over-modest, are we not?--when we allow our children to be taught that the first bloodshed of the Revolution was in the Boston Massacre, forgetting that the Liberty Pole fight took place in New York six weeks earlier. It was here in New York that the Stamp Act Congress met, the forerunner of the federation of the American colonies which cast off the British yoke. And in the long and weary war of the Revolution only one of the thirteen colonies furnished its full quota of men, money, and supplies--and that colony was the colony of New York!" Once more was the speaker interrupted by a tumult of approval; and once more he went on again as soon as he could make himself heard. "When the critical period in the history of this country came--that is, when the need of a new constitution was felt by all--no men had a larger share in the making of that constitution than two New-Yorkers, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, while the nervous English of that great instrument was due to a third New-Yorker, Gouverneur Morris. It was in New York that the foundations of American literature were laid, by the publication of _Knickerbocker's History_, the earliest book to be printed in America which keeps its popularity to-day--and more than fourscore years have not yet tarnished its humor. To the author of this immortal book, to Washington Irving, was due the first work of American authorship which won acceptance outside of the boundaries of the United States. And as it was the _Sketch-Book_ of Washington Irving which was the first American book to win its way in England, so it was the _Spy_ of another citizen of New York, Fenimore Cooper, which was the first American book to achieve fame outside of the English language. It was here in New York that our American literature was first fostered, as it is here in New York that our American authors are most abundant, most highly honored, and most richly rewarded." The speaker paused again, but only for a moment.